CAIRO: The Suez Canal Authority posted a record monthly income of $487 million in May, a 27 percent surge on the previous year, authority chairman Ahmed Fadel said on Wednesday.

The income was also an eight percent increase over April, which had itself brought in a record income of $449 million.

The earnings followed the authority s 7.1 percent average increase in fees for different classes of ship imposed in March.

With some 7.5 percent of world trade transiting the canal, which links the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, income from the waterway provides Egypt with its third highest source of foreign currency after tourism and remittances from Egyptians working abroad.

For the fiscal year June 2006-June 2007, Cairo benefited from record receipts from the canal totaling some $4.16 billion. -AFP